2:1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment [is] for you.
2:2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay [it] to heart,
to give glory to my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even
send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yes, I
have cursed them already, because ye do not lay [it] to heart.
2:3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your
faces, [even] the dung of your solemn feasts; and [one] shall
take you away with it.
2:4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment to you,
that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
2:5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them
to him [for] the fear with which he feared me, and was afraid
before my name.
2:6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not
found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and
turned many away from iniquity.
2:7 For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should
seek the law at his mouth: for he [is] the messenger of the
LORD of hosts.
2:8 But ye have departed out of the way; ye have caused many to
stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi,
saith the LORD of hosts.
2:9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before
all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have
been partial in the law.
2:10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?
why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by
profaning the covenant of our fathers?
2:11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is
committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned
the holiness of the LORD whom he loved, and hath married the
daughter of a strange god.
2:12 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master
and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that
offereth an offering to the LORD of hosts.
2:13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD
with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he
regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth [it] with
good will at your hand.
2:14 Yet ye say, Why? Because the LORD hath been witness between
thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt
treacherously: yet [is] she thy companion, and the wife of thy
covenant.
2:15 And did he not make one? Yet had he the residue of the
spirit. And why one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore
take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously
against the wife of his youth.
2:16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith, that he hateth
putting away: for [one] covereth violence with his garment,
saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit,
that ye deal not treacherously.
2:17 Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, In
what have we wearied [him]? When ye say, Every one that doeth
evil [is] good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in
them; or, Where [is] the God of judgment?
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